Recently, I had the fun of helping someone with their project that involves writing a number of articles about a specific topic. It is a great subject for a membership website.
I told my friend that I would help him. So, we set up a website, put in a few basic pages including an introduction to his course materials, and created a membership only section and then…..stopped.
Since I wasn’t seeing any course materials, I asked him what he was doing. He said that he was doing more research.
Now, let me assure you that this gentleman has more intimate knowledge of the topic he is working on then most people have about their chosen professions. So, what is he doing research on?
He was doing advanced research in his somewhat complicated profession. He was gathering material for his course, for when his students reached their advanced year status. You know: the doctorate material.
Wait a minute, he doesn’t have any students. And, if someone were to join right now, there are no materials from which to start learning.
So, I asked him if he still had his TOC (table of contents) or outline available. He said he had it somewhere around.
OK, so here is what happens next?
I suggested that he look at the topic title for the very first thing on his TOC. Then, sit down and write a short article about that topic. When I say short I mean in the range of 500 – 700 words. This is about 3 or 4 minutes of reading for most folks.
Now, store this document in a folder named whatever the first chapter is called. But don’t call it the same name as the folder.
If that same subject needs more explanation, then write another short article about it. Keep the number of words limited to 500 – 700 words.
And, so forth until that topic is exhausted. You might have ten articles all related to the same topic but each detailing a specific point or thought. You might only have one article, although this is rare.
Now start on the second chapter. Repeat the same steps used in making chapter one.
OK, done with chapter two.
Go back to chapter one’s first article and re-read it. Fill in the transitions, take out the BS. Save it. Go to article two. Repeat these steps until you’ve reached the end of the chapter.
Once you have completely re-written every article in the first chapter, make a new file named the same as the chapter and create a new document where you combine these short articles. Don’t lose those little articles
Now, print it out this newly created big document, edit it. Make sure that the transitions from one article to the next are smooth. Add whatever you need to make it flow from A to B to C etc. Rearrange your articles to make them grow steadily towards the conclusion of the first chapter.
One more thing, at the very end of this big document, create a transition paragraph that leads the student into their next chapter. Give them a little bit of what is to come. In this way, you will have created a demand to keep going.
When you get done with that part, you can put it into a PDF document that will be ready for downloading.
Now, go do chapter 3. Write your little articles.
Go back to chapter 2, repeat the actions of Chapter 1 where you re-edit each short article and finally combine them into one big document with the same name as Chapter 2.
And so on.
Pretty soon, you have enough material in your inventory to start signing up students.
Right about now, it is going to get a tad hairy. You will start to get real students. They ask the most interesting questions at the most unusual time. You need to be ready to modify your materials as their demands dictate.
AND, you still have a number of chapters to get written, AND, you can also take the rest of your day to continue your own education to prepare for those advance students who will eat up your earlier materials really, really fast.
If you have a logical stopping point several chapters out, then perhaps you can wrap it up as a complete project. If your subject allows you to keep going, then you can start your next course.
I will not go into the marketing aspect of this project since there is an abundant supply of sources already out there. But, that will be your next step.
Good luck and have fun.
